The C6 Corvette is a phenomenon. Despite a substandard interior, its power, dynamics, and styling have given it international credibility the C5 struggled to achieve and the gold-chain-inspiring C3 and C4 could only dream of. Now it’s talked of as a competitor for Porsche 911, Aston Martin V-8 Vantage, various BMW Ms, and Mercedes AMGs. That 505-horsepower Z06 (the 2007 Z06 is pictured) hasn’t hurt.But just before it’s replaced by the all-new C7, the C6 will get one last shot at automotive immortality: around 700 horsepower and a new name. Word in Detroit is the long-awaited uber-Corvette, codenamed the Blue Devil…

Count on MUCH MORE during the bash and press event later this week.
Thanks to Frankie in NC, we have a quick shot of ONE of the new wheels. You may recall, we todl you that NOT all of the 2008 wheels will be a split spoke as it is on the 2007 Pace Car Corvette. … including the Z06 exhaust on a Regular Corvette?!?!?!

U.S. Bank’s racing team won the 2007 Gold Cup at Saturday’s Mini Corvette Challenge in the Greenwood Mall parking lot.

Roughly 25 corporate teams raced Corvette-style go-carts in several heats to set the fields for Gold, Silver and Bronze Cup races. The 13th-annual race benefited Junior Achievement of Southern Kentucky, according to Heather Rogers, the local JA president.

Darren Woodruff, U.S. Bank’s Scottsville community president, drove the last half of the 20-lap Gold Cup for his team; regional bank president Craig Browning drove the first.

“Once we got the lead, we were able to bring it home,” Woodruff said, beads of sweat covering his face after the race.

Browning and Woodruff have driven together for four years and the pit crew has been together for five, and the team also won the Gold Cup in 2003.

Going into the most competitive of three races, Browning said, drivers expect fierce competition and bumping around the twisty track, which is surrounded by straw bales.

“You don’t ever know what’s going to happen,” he added.

A General Motors team, one of three of its Saturday entries, took second in the Gold Cup; Wachovia Bank’s team finished third in the nine-car race. Sun/Dollar General’s team took first in the Silver Cup and Nyloncraft’s team was first in the Bronze.

Judy Edwards of Bowling Green got to see her son, Eric Edwards, one of Nyloncraft’s drivers, race for the first time Saturday.

“I didn’t realize that the competition was this intense,” she said, noting that she fears her son’s eventual goal of racing at Beech Bend.

Nicki Carver, wife of Dollar General pit crew member Alan Carver, said being a spectator is “nerve wracking,” especially after watching two cars flip on Saturday. One driver was transported to a hospital by ambulance as a precaution; the other got up and finished his race, she said.

“Our suits are really top of the line,” Carver said of the protection gear her husband’s team wears.

Rogers said teams pay $4,500 for the cars, which are ordered from the same company. The cars then belong to the teams, but are impounded a week prior to the race.

“Some set up practice tracks in their company’s parking lot. The key is to have light, small drivers,” she said.

The event likely raised $30,000 Saturday for Junior Achievement programs in the region, which serve about 14,000 students with economic and financial literacy education, Rogers said.

Jack LaLanne is America’s oldest and most loved fitness expert. He opened the first modern health spa in America in 1936 and brought physical fitness to national TV in 1951. His inventions include the first weight pulley machines using cables, the first weight selectors, and the first leg-extension machine. He was the first fitness trainer to have women work with weights, and he encouraged the disabled and elderly to exercise for their own health. But there’s something you probably don’t know about Jack LaLanne.

His passion has always been fast cars-the faster, the better. In-between his fitness routines and motivational talks across the United States, Jack gets behind the wheel of his fourth Corvette, an ’05 coupe. Yes, you read that right: Jack LaLanne, at 92 years young, is the proud owner of America’s premier 400hp supercar. Figuring he was the oldest Corvette-owning celebrity alive, we asked him for an interview. Somewhat surprisingly, he agreed.

Chevrolet sold 36,000 Corvettes in 2006 (source: GM). J. D. Power and Associates reports that 47% are sold to people age 36-55 and an astounding 40% are sold to customers age 56 and up. Not surprisingly, 84% of Corvette buyers are men (source: J. D. Power).

It appears the “Blue Devil” Corvette already is so quick it has even outrun a freeze on large and powerful rear-drive cars at General Motors, and it’s not even finished yet.

“That one is too late to stop. That’s almost finished. It’s in the final stages of tuning,” Bob Lutz, vice chairman in charge of product development, told CARandDRIVER.com during a recent interview in which he outlined a series of rear-drive projects that have been put on hold until the auto maker knows how strict the proposed new corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) regulations will be.